Kate Starling talk at the Art Museum

We enjoyed hearing Kate Starling talk about her art at the St. George Art Museum tonight. My artist buddy Myron Laub and I joined other artists and collectors to hear her tell about her life as an artist and see a slide show of her paintings. She has become nationally known as a Plein Air painter of the landscape. With a degree in geology and a passion for hiking and climbing, she is well-suited for painting the red rocks in our area -- especially Zion National Park. One of her paintings was juried into the upcoming Zion Centennial Art Show. It was fun to visit with her and listen to her light and lively comments about her work.

Zion National Park painting by Kate Starling

Asleep at the wheel

I've been reminded by more than a few readers that I have been lax in updating the blog lately. I admit it, I have been busy and just haven't found the time to post. I've done about six or seven new paintings including finishing some of the last workshop demos. I will post them over the next couple of days. The painting above is a little 5" x 8" study of the light and shadows on Zion's cliffs.

"Fresh Snow" Watercolor Demo Painting

This little painting was started in my last St. George workshop and finished later in the studio. I decided it needed a judicious cropping to make it more powerful. After throwing a mat on it, I brought it back to my March class where Karen Bettilyon decided she wanted to buy it on the spot. Karen already owns a couple of my other original paintings and I am pleased she selected it for her collection.

March Painting Workshop at A Passion for Painting

Artists include l to r: Lola Krummenacher, Paige Jeffs, Bev Hagadorn,Roland Lee, Erica Shea, Karen Bettilyon, Kay Besteman, Carrie Ruppe, and Gail Alger.

My March workshop focused on rocks and desert scenes with an emphasis on backpainting or negative painting in watercolor. I was pleased with the work this group produced. We took advantage of the warm spring weather in St. George and went on a sketching trip to the red hill.

Mike Malm Show at Trailside Gallery and gallery hopping in Scottsdale

We stayed over an extra day in order to do a little gallery hopping in Scottsdale and enjoy the warm 80 degree Arizona sunshine. We did plenty of both! After picking up our rental car we drove from Tempe to the Scottsdale Art District, an area teeming with galleries and shops. We started with the Trailside Gallery, one of my favorites hoping to see some of Mike Malm's work. We were rewarded with a real treat as they had about ten big pieces on display. When I told the the gallery rep I had one of Mike's originals hanging in my living room, she really perked up sensing a sale in the making. His paintings were incredible and I truly wished I could buy a couple today. What a master!

This painting "Dappled" by Michael Malm was Nellie's favorite.

We then moved on to Leslie Levy, Legacy Gallery, Overland Trails, and others, stopping to chat with Jessica Hunter in the Rive Gauche gallery. A few quick questions told me she knew her stuff and I enjoyed visiting with her. They display works by a number of Utah artists including sculptor L'Deane Trueblood who is a good friend of mine (of course I own a wonderful bronze by her as well.) Nellie and I also enjoyed the work of Jerry Cox especially "Hammock Lovers" which hangs suspended from the ceiling. The figurative paintings of Bryce Cameron Liston were knockouts and we enjoyed the peaceful paintings of Doug Aagard and the big bold color-filled paintings of Jeff Ham.

It's always fun to charge the artistic batteries by visiting galleries, but I often wish I were a rich art collector with an unlimited budget rather than a starving artist with a credit card.

Private Art Show in Phoenix Arizona

From Denver we caught a plane to Phoenix Arizona for a private Five-person art show sponsored by the Mission Gallery. Artists included Marty Ricks, Kieth Bond, Julie Rogers, Ron Rencher and I. We enjoyed meeting many new art collectors there, who purchased a number of paintings. I was honored to have my painting "Bavarian Steet Scene" chosen for the collection of Dr. Harvey and Wendy Taylor. It was a pleasure getting to know them as well as the other collectors who attended. Special thanks to Jane Juber and Michelle Root from the Mission Gallery who organized the show and to George and Kay Ferrin who hosted the event at their lovely home in Ahwatukee.

Denver Conference on Public Lands and a trip to the Denver Art Museum

From Houston we flew up to Denver Colorado for the Association for Partners in Public Lands Conference. As a board member of the Zion National Park Foundation and the Zion Natural History Association I joined with others who represent national parks from all over the United States. While preservation of public lands is always at the forefront of interest, we are especially concerned about ways to introduce a computer generation to the outdoors and share our love of the wilderness with them. We addressed some very interesting issues associated with that need.

Of course we were able to spend time in the wonderful Denver Art Museum and see the "Inspiring Impressionism" exhibit as well as the Western Art Collection. We had hoped to hook up with Peter Hassrick at the museum, who is judging the upcoming Zion Centennial Art Competition that we have been working on the past year, but his schedule and ours didn't match up.



I was excited to see this massive painting of Yellowstone Falls by one of my favorite landscape painters Wilson Hurley. He was an inspiration to me early in my career but I have not been able to see many of his paintings up close.

San Antonio Texas Watercolor Workshop

I've spent a great four days presenting a watercolor workshop in San Antonio Texas. Thanks to Barbara Brunner who organized the workshop sponsored by the San Antonio Watercolor Group. I met a wonderful group of accomplished artists who I now consider friends. And what a classy group! We couldn't have been treated nicer.

Nellie and I were met at the airport by Barbara with a vase of flowers, and we were treated like royalty the whole time. They put us up in a top floor suite at the Crowne Plaza hotel which turned out to be the nicest and friendliest hotel we've ever stayed at. The staff went out of their way to accomodate all our needs and the facility was superb.The weather has been in the high 70's the whole time so we've been loving it.



Our good friends Greg and Kathy Cherry invited us to their home for a delicious salmon dinner one evening and took us to the Alamo and the Riverwalk another night. We were fortunate that the Alamo was open Friday evening for special re-enactments of the Alamo history. It was fun to visit with Greg and Kathy especially since we share cute grandkids together. Now we are flying over to Houston to spend a day with Jana, Phil, Matty and Katie. Then off to Denver for the APPL conference. We expect a big climate change between here and there since snow is predicted tomorrow up there.

Sears Invitational Art Show Award

The Sears Invitational Art Show kicked off yesterday at Dixie State College. I entered two pieces, one of which won an award. My painting "Lake Powell Morning" was awarded third place in watercolor. I also exhibited "Stone Buttress" which previously won Best of Show at the St. George Art Museum recently.

Workshop demonstration paintings

This is one of the snow paintings I began in my February workshop and finished up in the studio. We were working on how to paint water reflections.



We all used the same photo reference and worked on this painting together. First we planned the design with a thumbnail sketch deciding where we wanted the emphasis to be. then we went to work. I was pleased with the student's results and felt many of them were more exciting than mine was.